 In the 1930s, the new joint company, Daimler-Benz, with their mighty Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows, dominated Grand Prix racing in Europe together with its rival, Auto Union.In fact the colour of the cars, which was later to become legendary, was unintentional—they had initially been painted white as was traditional for German cars, but the paint was stripped away to reduce weight.The cars set speed records up to 435 km/h (270 mph).